Coupling devices to interconnect two members have taken many different forms. In the machine tool field, tool holders are coupled to tool holder sockets and secured therein in many different ways. A typical tool holder socket may be cylindrical or conical, and the conical types have known a threaded drawbar coaxially with the tool holder and within the socket to draw the tool holder tightly into seated engagement in the work holder socket.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,062,630 shows segmented jaws moved by a screw-threaded member into engagement in a groove in the tool.
In recent years, tool holders have been more widely used in the tool holder sockets, and the tool holders, in turn, receive different-sized tools. Self-locking conical tapers have been used, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,024,030. After use, the tool holder must be driven out to be removed. To secure the tool holders in the socket, an annular groove has been used on the tool holder with radially movable jaws engaging the groove, as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,999,769.
A threaded drawbar to secure a conical tool holder in a conical socket is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,412,766.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,759,536 shows a conical tool holder in a conical socket which is secured in the socket by means of a T-shaped head at the small end of the cone which fits through an aperture in a threaded member, and then the threaded member is rotated to tighten the tool holder into the socket.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,328,975 shows a conical tool holder with a circular flange at the large end of the cone and a rotatable locking member acting on this circular flange to secure the tool holder in the socket.
The complicated structures of the prior art illustrate the difficulties in providing a coupling or interconnection mechanism which is positive locking yet is easily connected and disconnected.